Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was criticized Tuesday by a lawmaker from his own Liberal Democratic Party over his long-held goal to privatize the nation's postal services.

"The idea of opening the (postal services) market to the private sector and offering the services based on the market mechanism principle cannot coexist with providing equal and universal postal services," Lower House member Yamato Inaba told the House of Representatives panel on posts and telecommunications.

The remarks, representing the voice of LDP lawmakers with vested interests in the postal sector, were made on the first day of full-fledged deliberations on the issue in the Lower House.